TOKYO - New US ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said Washington
still supported Japan's bid to be a permanent member of the Security Council,
despite balking at a deadline to expand the UN body.

"Not only do I personally support Japan's bid on the United Nations Security
Council, more importantly my government supports that," Schieffer told his first
press conference in Tokyo since arriving on April 8.

"We believe, at the end of the day, whatever reforms occur at the United
Nations, Japan ought to be on the Security Council," said Schieffer, a Texan and
close friend of US President George W. Bush.

The United States on April 7 declined to endorse a proposal by UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan to set a September deadline for action on long-mulled
reforms, dealing a setback to momentum for historic changes.

"I think setting up an artificial deadline is probably not healthy for the
process. I think this is so complicated," Schieffer said.

"We will do damage to the process if we have to say 'this has to be done by
such and such date,'" he said.

Japan has made securing a permanent seat on the Security Council a major
priority and is in a joint bid with Brazil, Germany and India.

Only Japan's candidacy is explicitly backed by the United States. But the bid
has been the focus of three weekends of furious demonstrations in China, which
says Japan does not deserve a seat until it further atones for wartime
atrocities.

The Security Council's set-up giving veto power to five nations -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- is based on global power dynamics
at the end of World War II.